


The Paris Situation

by QuidditchSeason1977



Series: The Gotham City Problem [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma Attack, Gen, Marinette transferred classes, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tim Drake is Red Robin, post-identity reveal, she doesn't need that kind of negativity in her life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26169535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuidditchSeason1977/pseuds/QuidditchSeason1977
Summary: Tim hadn't meant to adopt a pair of Parisian superheroes. It just sort of happened.Marinette and Adrien are confused about the large amount of siblings and mentors they seem to have suddenly acquired, but they're being surprisingly helpful so they can stay. Plus, if there's one thing they've learned in their stint as superheroes, it's how to roll with the unexpected and baffling. They live in Paris - unexpected and baffling are basically a constant state of affairs.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: The Gotham City Problem [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1900393
Comments: 54
Kudos: 483





	1. Paris Has a Super Villain?

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my gosh. Wow. Seriously, I was not expecting The Gotham City Problem to be so popular. Like, at all. Thanks you guys. I so appreciate all of the Kudos and comments.
> 
> I'm a bit nervous to be starting a larger work since historically I'm not that great at finishing them. With that in mind, I'm going to be following a similar pattern to my Flash Fiction series - each chapter is going to be written in 2 hours or less with the goal of updating weekly. We'll see how that goes.
> 
> I don't have much of a plan either - just a few ideas that I'm fleshing out. With that in mind, I'm going to ask for some opinions. I need ship ideas for both Marinette and Adrien (and Tim if you want to, I guess). I'm not saying I'll use anything, but I could use some ideas. Some restrictions - I'm not going to use one of the Batfam for either of them (it just doesn't really fit the vibe I've been working with here) and I'm not going to ship Marinette with Adrien. In the backstory that I'm now fleshing out, during their reveal they talk about their mutual crushes and realize that neither of their reactions to the other were all that healthy and decide not to date. Or something like that.
> 
> Also, background on the transfer. After being expelled, Marinette finished out her school year in the class and then started the new school year in a new one. Adrien wants to transfer but his father won't agree to it. Adrien doesn't know why.
> 
> I don't own anything!

**Tim Drake**

So, the thing is.

Well, the thing is.

The thing is, he hadn't actually _meant_ to adopt a couple of Parisian superheroes?

It just kind of... happened.

Oh, wow. He really sounds like Bruce. Maybe he should ask one of the others to stage an intervention?

No, focus. He has a mission.

...But maybe it would help to backtrack from where this whole mess began? It might help things make more sense now. Because this was insane. Tim knew insane. He'd lived in _Gotham City_ for most of his life. Most people would call that Insanity Central.

Those people clearly hadn't been to Paris anytime recently. Because Paris took insanity to a whole 'nother level. Maybe even a whole 'nother _universe_. It was like someone had picked up reality and slid it six inches to the left and Tim _didn't know how to handle this_.

So. The beginning. And maybe logic and reality would come crashing back as he worked through the sequence of events. Maybe. Tim wasn't holding his breath on that one.

The beginning for Tim started at a regular save-the-idiot-tourist-from-Two-Face situation at the Gotham Art Museum. Once the Two-Face goons were all dealt with, Red Robin had been preparing to leave when one of the tourists ran up to him, stuck a cell phone in his face, and asked for his opinion on the Hawkmoth problem. Red Robin had asked what she was talking about and the girl had responded, "Yeah, Hawkmoth. Hasn't Lila told you about him? He's a pretty big deal in Paris right now."

Red Robin had seen her a group of teenagers behind her give her dirty looks at that description. "I'm sorry," he'd said, "who's Lila?"

"Lila Rossi?" the girl had said, confusion colouring her tone. "Your civilian contact? She's known you guys for years-"

The girl with the phone was cut off by another girl - Italian by the sound of her accent - saying, "Oh Alya, of course he's not going to _admit_ to knowing me. That would be super dangerous-"

Red Robin could see where that was going and shut it down. "Stop talking," he said in his most menacing tone that he usually reserved for the especially stupid and Ra's al Ghul. These two girls obviously fit the former category. He stared them down with his best Batglare. "I have never met anyone by the name of Lila Rossi before. Neither have any of my associates." He directed his glare right at Lila Rossi. "We do not appreciate people lying about us. It makes us... suspicious. Suspicious enough that we start investigating them. Our investigations are very thorough. We find _everything._ Cease pretending to know us. We do not associate with civilians. The most sensible thing you've said is that it would, indeed, be _super dangerous_ to pretend to know us. But not all danger comes from villains. Sometimes, the real danger is irritating the Bat." He turned back to the girl with the phone, Alya, and gentled his tone slightly. "Tell me more about this Hawkmoth problem."

"Well, he's Paris' supervillain? He's been active for like 3 or 4 years at this point, I think. Ladybug and Chat Noir fight him. But he's only made a couple of personal appearances, so they aren't having much luck. Mostly they fight his minions. He uses Akuma-"

The girl was cut off by her teacher calling for her in French: "Mlle Césaire! Come, we're leaving!"

The girl grimaced. "Sorry Red Robin," she said in English, "I've got to go. If you want more details, you can check my blog - it's the Ladyblog. I've got footage from some of the attacks and Ladybug even gave me an interview once!"

Red Robin nodded once. "I may do that. You should go." He used his grapple to swing away, mind whirling. Paris has a supervillain? And heroes? He couldn't recall seeing anything about that in the Justice League database... though he hadn't been specifically looking for Paris supervillains or heroes, so he should double check just to be sure.

He returned to the Cave, the new mystery distracting him enough that he thought it was a good idea not to be running around stopping crime anymore tonight. That was how people ended up with dislocated shoulders ( _cough*Jason*cough)._

The first thing he did after logging into the Batcomputer was use the backdoor into the JL database that Batman totally thought was a secret to check if there were any calls from Paris during the timeframe Alya mentioned. There were a couple not quite four years ago, but there was a note labelling them as pranks, so Red Robin disregarded them for now. He also checked to see if there were any notes about heroes or villains in Paris, but there was nothing. Just a note from two years ago noting a remarkable _lack_ of activity, which was fair. There weren't very many major cities these days who didn't have some kind of hero protector.

Red Robin's next destination was the blog Alya mentioned. Curiously, the Ladyblog didn't seem to exist - although there was a mention of Alya Césaire winning a local award for aspiring young journalists two years ago with the Ladyblog cited as the main example of her work. Red Robin frowned. Something wasn't adding up. He switched the Batcomputer's location to say Paris and searched again. This time the Ladyblog came up. Interesting. He switched the location to Nice and ran the search again. Nothing. Switching back to Paris and pulling up the main page of the Ladyblog, he considered the oddity. So, you had to be in Paris for a blog dedicated to Paris' heroes and their exploits to show up.

Red Robin spent the next couple of hours reading through articles and watching videos. Some of it seemed to be unbelievable, but he ran the videos through the Batcomputer's system, and they came up clean for tampering. With that in mind, he was forced to accept that the videos were real. He went back to the prank videos from the JL database. They were of some of the early attacks and should have been treated seriously. Red Robin scowled. He would love to know who was responsible for declaring them fakes.

By the time the others had come back from patrol, Red Robin was convinced that his next step was to actually go to Paris. There was one school in particular that seemed to be a central location to many of the attacks and he started the process to enroll himself for his last semester. Guess Bruce would be winning that argument. Ugh.

Bruce owned a penthouse in Paris, so he used that as his address. All that remained was to convince Bruce to take over being CEO for a couple of months, which should be easy. He'd already offered to do so when he was trying to convince him to go back to high school. And a cover story as to why Tim Drake-Wayne was in Paris. Red Robin frowned, then shrugged. He was a Wayne. Gotham was used to the Waynes doing weird things for no real reason.

Two days later, he was on a plane to Paris. The others were confused as to why he suddenly wanted to go to Paris for his last semester of school, but Tim ignored them. He hadn't mentioned his ongoing investigation. There were a couple of reasons for this. First, based on the explanation of how Akuma worked, he was confident that Jason, Damien, or Bruce would be easily Akumatized. He and Dick were the best options for this mission, but he knew that his family would want to get involved if he filled them in on the details. That would probably not end well. Second, there was some instinct telling him to keep quiet for now. He trusted his instincts - some days they were the difference between him living and him dying. So, he kept quiet for now.

The next few days were spent playing up the clueless transfer. He didn't start school (ugh) for two more weeks. In that time, he found out more about the situation. Apparently, it wasn't just Ladybug and Chat Noir - there were other heroes too. The blog had hinted at it but didn't go into a ton of detail on them. It really seemed to be dedicated to the two primary heroes. But none of them had been seen in action for nearly a year now and no one knew why. Also - apparently one of the heroes had _revealed themselves on live television._ The girl in question (Chloe Bourgeois, alias Queen Bee) had been about 14 at the time and by all accounts a bit of a brat, so it made sense that she hadn't been very cautious about it. But it seemed logical that if one hero were that young, the others would be too. And there weren't any signs of any older heroes, just the teenage ones. Where was their hero mentor? Tim could understand not using Queen Bee again, but why hadn't the other heroes been seen in so long?

So many questions and not enough answers.

It was on the seventh day since he'd spoken to Alya Césaire that he felt ready to speak to the local heroes. 

He walked away from _that_ conversation feeling bewildered. They didn't have a hero mentor? Hawkmoth had gotten to their team? Clearly the Bourgeois girl was still alive, so maybe they just meant he'd figured out their identities? _They didn't have a secret base?_ He had, at least, been given phone numbers that would connect to their _yo-yo and staff, what the heck_ , so that was at least a win. He'd call them later that night.

_The adoption tendencies were contagious?_

That was probably the most concerning part, in his opinion. They couldn't just go around adopting every young person who had a difficult life into the Batclan - even if they were already heroes and/or matched the aesthetic Bruce had going on. Besides, Ladybug and Chat Noir almost definitely had parents. Living ones, that is. He really hoped they were still living - not only did having dead parents really suck, there would be _no stopping Bruce from adopting them if their parents were dead._ Plus, these two lived in Paris.

A thought occurred to Tim. He smirked, pulled out his phone and opened Twitter.

Tim Drake-Wayne  
@sleepisfortheweak✔   
A warning to my siblings: THE ADOPTION TENDENCIES ARE CONTAGIOUS!!!!! 9:42 PM - 6 March 2018  20k  25k 

His phone immediately started blowing up. Still smirking, he put it to silent and slipped it back into his pocket. He'd go through the notifications later.


	2. Paris Also Has Heroes

**Marinette Dupain-Cheng**

As far as unexpected complications go, Red Robin seemed to be an okay one so far. Once she and Chat Noir had explained why they didn’t want it known that the Justice League was involved in Paris, he was perfectly willing to work with the restrictions they gave him. Ladybug and Chat Noir had video called with the American vigilante later that evening and he’d been nothing but helpful. He offered them training, something they were sorely lacking (especially when it came to the detective work the Batfam was famed for). He even offered to arrange a secret base for them so the three could meet up for in person training sessions.

But the best part about Red Robin was the fact that he acknowledged that this was their city and deferred to them on everything – even though he had been properly trained by Batman. He agreed that they knew their villain and their city better, and everything he suggested was just that – a suggestion.

She and Chat Noir had taken him up on the offer of a secret base. After the call, she and Adrien had decided that they would still store the Miracle Box in Marinette’s room, but it would be good to have a place to meet as heroes that wouldn’t also compromise their identities. Letting Red Robin handle the acquisition of the base would add another layer of protection to their identities should Hawkmoth discover it.

Red Robin had texted the next day that it would take three or four days until the base was ready. In the meantime, he had a number of exercises and readings for them to start with. Adrien grumbled a bit about the extra work on top of his already packed schedule, but Marinette knew that he was grateful for Red Robin’s presence. As long as Red Robin was able to keep control of his emotions, everything should be fine.

She looked over at Adrien. “I think we can trust him,” said Adrien.

She nodded, “I agree.” She took a deep breath. “If he proves himself, I think he would be a good fit for a Miraculous as well.”

“So you felt it too?” asked Adrien. Marinette just nodded. Maybe Paris would have a new hero soon.

**Tim Drake-Wayne**

Tim, would you like to explain why you’ve bought a warehouse in Paris using the secure funds?  
Tim. I can see you’ve read this.  
Tim is not able to answer his phone right now, please leave a message and he’ll get back to you as soon as he can.  
  
**Read** 12:10 AM
    
    
      
    
      
    
    

The Gotham Gazette  
@gothamgazette✔   
A new Wayne? Vikki Vale has all the details! 8:30 AM - 7 March 2018  28k  32k 

**Today** 9:42 AM  
The First Robin  
Tim? Are you alright?  
The Superior Robin  
Tch. Of course Drake isn't alright.  
I'm fine Dick. Paris has been... an interesting experience so far.  
The Zombie Robin  
What’s that supposed to mean Replacement? And what’s up with your Tweet?  
Like I said, it was a warning to all of us. Hopefully we have better impulse control than B.  
The All-Knowing  
Tim will you please give B a proper answer about the warehouse? He’s starting to annoy me.  
The Zombie Robin  
What warehouse?  
The All-Knowing  
The one that Tim bought in Paris using secure funds.  
The First Robin  
Why did you do that Tim?  
I don’t know what to tell you Babs. It felt like the thing to do.  
The Superior Robin  
Drake has finally taken leave of his senses… not that he had many to begin with.  
The First Robin  
Dami!  
The Zombie Robin  
Ouch Demon Spawn  
Well, this has been fun, but Paris is a few hours ahead of you and I’ve got a busy day of hacking ahead of me, so I’m heading out.  
The First Robin  
Tim, what are you hacking?  
The First Robin  
TIM!!!  
The First Robin  
Welp, he’s gone. Does anyone know anything about what he’s been up to lately?  
The All-Knowing  
Not a clue. He was doing some pretty obsessive research before he left for Paris though. But he’s wiped out any trace of whatever he was researching so I’m left with nothing to work with.  
The Zombie Robin  
Should one of us go to Paris to check on him?  
The First Robin  
… Maybe, but let’s give him a couple of weeks. It could just be moving that’s making him act so weird.  
The Superior Robin  
As if he needed a reason.  


**Today** 11:28 AM  
Hey Dinah, I need a favor.  
Sure, what’s up kid?  
Please keep this secret from anyone else – it’s a delicate operation and adding more volatile elements might make it explode  
What did you get yourself into?  
I’ll fill you in once you agree.  
Fine, I won’t tell anyone. What do you need?  
There are heroes in Paris. They fight the villain Hawkmoth, who uses these things called Akuma to possess people with strong negative emotions. Would you be willing to do some remote sessions with the two heroes here? They don’t want anyone else from the JL entering Paris just in case they can’t control their emotions, but they've been basically suppressing any negative reactions to anything, from what they've said.  
Heck kid, that’s really not mentally healthy. Yeah, I’ll work with them.  
Thanks. Which line do you want me to have them call on?  
The one I use for the Teen Titans is fine. How many are there?  
Just 2. There used to be more, but they got exposed to Hawkmoth. Ladybug and Chat Noir.  
Let me know when they’re ready to call.  
Will do, thanks Dinah.  


Tim scowled. Despite his best efforts, it would still be three or four days before the Paris Base was operational and he wouldn’t be meeting with Ladybug and Chat Noir until then. In the meantime, he had a terrible and unpleasant task ahead of him: school shopping.

After shopping (ugh), Tim explored the area Bruce’s penthouse was in on foot. He also explored the areas around some of the more popular sites for Akuma attacks: the plaza outside of the Eiffel Tower, the street around the Arc de Triomphe, a park near his new school, and a few other places. It would be good to know those areas especially. Just in case.

Later, when he was tired of walking around, he spent some time reviewing footage of old Akuma attacks, as well as current policies on what to do during attacks. Nothing that was in the online brochures was particularly strange – in fact, Tim would expect that any civilian with basic common sense would do those things automatically. Things like running away from attacks, evacuating to designated Akuma Safe-Spaces (which could be found on an attack-by-attack basis on an app that Tim promptly downloaded). It looked like the Safe-Spaces changed depending on the type of attack. For example, attacks where there was less property damage, civilians were advised to stay inside. If the attacks were more aerial in nature, then they were advised to go underground – such as basements or subways. If the attacks were focused on the ground (such as Syren), then civilians were advised to seek higher ground.

The app also allowed citizens to report an Akuma attack. Though it wasn’t mentioned anywhere, Tim assumed that the alert would be transmitted somehow to the heroes – or perhaps the police and _then_ the heroes. Either way, it was a good idea. Anybody who had the app downloaded (which was probably most of Paris, at this point) would know to avoid certain areas of the city or to find a Safe-Space.

Maybe he could put together something similar for Gotham City?

On second thought, that might not be a good idea – inevitably someone would use it to try and trick the vigilantes into a trap or something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good news! I'm no longer without a plan for this fic! I had a huge burst of inspiration on Saturday and now I have an outline! Yay! Also, I'm going to leave romance out of this fic, for the most part, because the focus of the fic really is on Marinette and Adrien's friendship with each other and their evolving relationship with the Batfam.
> 
> A huge thanks for all of the comments, kudos, and subscriptions. Hopefully this chapter lives up to your expectations. If it seemed like nothing happened, don't worry - next chapter will be drama filled.
> 
> Also thanks to those who sent info on the social media stuff - as you can see, I did eventually figure it out. Please let me know if anything looks weird!


	3. Warehouse? What Warehouse?

**Adrien Agreste**

Adrien was cautiously optimistic about Red Robin’s presence in Paris (though Marinette would say he was cautiously optimistic about a lot of things. He thought she was pessimistic about everything though, so it balanced out). In his mind, since the vigilante knew the dangers of becoming Akumatized, the danger really wasn’t any higher than when they’d had regular temporary heroes.

It had been a week and a half since Red Robin had arrived in Paris and things were going well between the three heroes. Red Robin was a great addition to their team. They’d met for late-night training sessions three times since the base had been ready (an old warehouse a little way out of Paris proper – not close, but doable with Kalki’s help), and he already had great tips. Since Adrien and Marinette were almost entirely self-taught, they started with the basics of combat and acrobatics. They also talked about the basics of profiling, which Adrien was practicing on his classmates. Red Robin was also helping them establish a timeline for attacks and files for each Akuma they fought – especially repeated Akuma like Mr. Pigeon, Volpina, and Gigantitan – detailing their strengths, weaknesses, and how they’d been previously defeated. Now, every time they fought an Akuma they were supposed to report to base as soon as they could (which for Adrien mostly meant at night) to write a report on it and either update or create the Akuma’s file. There was a long way to go with this database though, because there had been a lot of attacks over the years and he and Marinette didn’t necessarily remember all of them, but Adrien could see where it would be helpful in the future.

One thing this exercise had already revealed was that attacks tended to focus on central Paris – not _all_ attacks, and some Akuma had city-wide powers, but many. Red Robin had hypothesized this meant that Hawkmoth either lived, worked, had hideout, or a combination of all of those within central Paris. That was already more than Adrien and Marinette had been able to guess.

Another thing Red Robin suggested was talking to a therapist. Apparently, he had a hero friend (Black Canary) who was a therapist and a lot of the Justice League saw her. Red Robin had spoken to her and she was willing to work with Adrien and Marinette remotely. Adrien could tell Marinette wasn’t sold on the thought (more of her pessimism), but Adrien was really tempted. After the childhood he’d had, the idea of talking to an unbiased third party was… really comforting. Adrien wasn’t stupid – he knew he needed therapy. Between his mom’s disappearance and the way his father treated him, let alone anything Hawkmoth related, he would probably be in therapy for years. He’d wait a bit and see though. Once they’d been working with Red Robin for a bit longer and they had a better feel for him… Maybe.

All in all, Adrien was quite happy to welcome Red Robin to Paris.

**Timothy Drake-Wayne**

Tim really should have come up with an excuse for buying the warehouse. Or covered his tracks better.

The thing was, he knew his family. And his family was good at many things, but respecting boundaries wasn’t really one of them (see Exhibit A: Bruce immediately noticing Tim’s warehouse purchase for evidence). So if he said, “I’m mentoring a pair of Parisian heroes and we needed a place to meet but DON’T come because of the supervillain – and yes, they are the ones who have my adoption senses tingling” that would probably only stop Babs, Duke, Cass, and _maybe_ Steph. Jason would show up to shoot Hawkmoth once he found out the guy’d been possessing children. Damian would come because he thought he was a superior teacher or whatever and Dick would follow him (and want to see his potential new siblings). Bruce had no ability to keep his nose out of anything (though neither did Tim; see Exhibit B: this whole situation). And having seen the devastation caused by an Akumatized regular untrained civilian for himself now (there’d been five attacks since his arrival in Paris) as well as Chat Noir and Ladybug’s current skill level, he knew that the pair’s previous assessment had been correct: an Akumatized JL member would spell defeat for Ladybug and Chat Noir. And the pair had explained more about the consequences of combining the Ladybug and Cat Miraculi the way Hawkmoth wanted to – previous examples included the Black Plague, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and the Great Fire of London in 1666. So, nothing good for the rest of the world.

In other words, it was crucial that Tim’s family stayed out of Paris – especially the emotionally volatile ones. Tim himself was using every coping mechanism he had plus twice weekly sessions with Dinah.

I bought the warehouse so I have a place to practice vigilante stuff while I'm here. Civilian gyms just aren't cutting it. Plus, it's always good to have a safehouse for masked activities.  
  
**Read** 6:13 PM Why didn't you just say that to begin with?  
I live to make your life difficult B  
  
**Read** 6:15 PM You and all your siblings. How's school?  
Ugh.  
  
**Read** 6:19 PM

Tim put his phone away. Hopefully that would keep the Batfamily off his tail for a bit longer.

In other news, Tim had started school. Ugh. He quickly realized that a lot of the previous Akuma victims were in the other class and cursed his bad luck. He was quickly warned by students in his class that the other class was the “Akuma Class,” so called because so many of the people in that class (along with those around them and connected to them) were Akumatized often. Tim eventually calculated it as around every third Akuma attack. But because of this, none of the other students would associate with them – not that the Akuma Class noticed. Tim frowned internally. There was something weird about that class. It was the same one that had come to Gotham, after all, and no teacher picked _Gotham City_ as a field trip destination. That was basically a lawsuit waiting to happen. He’d need to investigate that class thoroughly.

There were really only two positives about Francoise Dupont. First, there were so many well-known children (either kids of celebrities/politicians or celebrities in their own right) that the name “Wayne” didn’t even cause a blip in anyone’s radar. Part of that was probably because they were far enough from Gotham that the last name didn’t immediately suggest _those_ Waynes. Even the addition of “Drake” to his last name didn’t cause anyone to blink… although that might be because it hadn’t been published that he was going to Paris specifically, just abroad. No one saw Timothy Drake-Wayne, CEO because no one was _expecting_ to see him.

Anyway, the second thing was the curriculum – this was a specialized school that allowed its students to focus on their interests to a fairly extreme degree. It was kind of like university; in that you picked a pair of focuses and the school tailored your schedule and assignments to those focusses. All his assignments, for example, made a connection (or required you to come up with a connection) that it could be useful in the business world. Some of it was even useful or interesting despite his prior experience as a CEO (Bruce must never find out).

Actually, there was a third thing that was positive about this school – Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste. Marinette was in most of his classes as they were in the same homeroom and both had business as their primary focus (though her second focus was fashion and his was technology). She introduced him to Adrien Agreste who was also focusing on business but had a different class schedule (with a couple of exceptions) as he was in the Akuma Class (which was a homeroom, Tim had since found out) (also, Adrien hadn’t been Akumatized. Or gone to Gotham. That meant he had some kind of common sense, in Tim’s humble opinion). His second focus was science (physics specifically), which was apparently an issue with his father. Marinette later explained that Gabriel Agreste wanted his son to take over the company while Adrien very much did _not_. It seemed Adrien’s mother was missing, presumed dead, while his father was both very distant and very controlling. Tim sympathized with the other boy. That situation felt… uncomfortably familiar. In any case, Tim offered his place if Adrien needed somewhere to crash that wasn’t a place his dad would know where to find him. Tim could tell Adrien appreciated the offer, though he probably wouldn’t take him up on it until they knew each other better, which was fair.

Overall, aside from the fact that Tim was attending school at all, things were going really well.

…Hopefully he didn’t just jinx things.

**Bonus: From the Phone of Dick Grayson**

**Today** 12:37 PM  
Bruce  
Tim's lying about the warehouse.  
Babs  
B, give it a rest about the warehouse. Nothing Tim said in his text was untrue.  
Bruce  
But neither is the reason he bought the warehouse.  
That might be true but let him come to you. Babs, any luck figuring out what he was researching before he left?  
Babs  
No. Which is weird – he’s good, but I’m better and there should be some kind of trace.  
Jason  
Stop getting Barbie to stalk your kid and just ask him what’s going on. If he doesn’t answer, or he lies, let him have it. He’ll let us know what’s going on eventually – you know Tim. He likes to handle things himself.  
Exactly. He’s fine.  
Bruce  
…If he doesn’t explain in a month, we’re taking a family trip to Paris.  
Babs  
And?  
Bruce  
And in the meantime, I’ll leave Tim alone about the warehouse.  
Babs  
And?  
Bruce  
And I’ll leave Babs alone about the warehouse.  
Babs  
Good.  
Jason  
What do you know? You really can teach an old dog new tricks.  
It’s only a new trick if it sticks. Leave him alone for the entire month. And warn him before you show up in Paris.  
Bruce  
… Fine.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter did not want to come. This will probably be the last of the exposition-y chapters (I hope).
> 
> Anyway, I read a fic a while ago where the author pointed out that someone like the Mayor of Paris wouldn't send his daughter to public school (Chloe wouldn't allow it in any case) and suggested a specialized school. This is not what that author suggested, although it's a little based on that. Unfortunately I can't find the fic otherwise I would properly credit it. But that's where this idea of a more university-like school comes from. They have a homeroom (which I don't think is a thing France normally does, although I could be wrong) and then the rest of their classes are based on their focuses, still sticking with their homeroom for the most part - although in this case it's because no one else wants to be in a class with someone from the Akuma Class. Side note, Marinette doesn't really have friends in her new class because she was once in the Akuma Class.
> 
> Thanks again for all of the comments, kudos, and subscribes! Next chapter includes an Akuma attack ;)


	4. What's in a Name?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a couple of things.
> 
> First, school has started and I find myself having to use time I'd previously set aside to write as study time. What this means is that the Paris Situation will probably only be updated every two weeks. I'm going to try not to go less than that, but we'll see how the semester goes.
> 
> Second, this chapter takes place five weeks after Tim's arrival in Paris. Bruce's conversation from the last chapter mentions a 1 month deadline. This deadline started two-ish weeks after Tim arrived in Paris. So there's still 1 week left in the deadline... which Tim didn't know about.

**Tim Drake-Wayne**

Tim had been in Paris for a total of five weeks now, and he felt like he was making good progress with the case. Ladybug and Chat Noir were starting to warm up to him and Chat Noir had even asked for Dinah’s number at their most recent training session. Tim wasn’t sure how long it would take for him to call her, but he sent Dinah a heads up anyways. Ladybug was still wary of him, but Chat had told him privately that she was the pessimist of the duo. She was still waiting for things to go wrong. Tim couldn’t blame her. He was an unwanted element that she was doing a good job of tolerating and working with.

Either way, things were going well with the pair. Tim had also taken it upon himself to discretely profile the Akuma class at school. There was certainly an eclectic mix of personalities in that class. Tim just couldn’t figure out why so many of them were targeted. There were other schools in their area with other students who had similar issues to many of the students in that class, but none of them had nearly the same Akumatization rates as that class – even compared to the rest of their school, that class had a oddly high Akumatization rate. It bothered Tim – he was missing a variable, something that affected only this school and that class in particular and seemingly nothing else. It was why he was profiling those students.

School itself was going well too. The classes were more interesting than Tim had expected. Marinette and Adrien were awesome. Marinette’s parents owned the best bakery in Paris and she often brought snacks for the trio, or they would go there over their lunch break. Marinette herself was a lot of fun to hang out with too. Adrien was a huge nerd and Tim loved it – it had been ages since he’d had anyone to geek out over Star Wars or Marvel movies. The two Parisians had taken it upon themselves to show Tim some of the cool places that didn’t show up on tourism websites – the places only natives knew about. Today they had gone to a cat café that not only had awesome food, but also had awesome cats. Tim had made a mental note of the place to come back to another time – there was nothing quite so therapeutic as spending a couple of hours petting a cat. When Tim made this comment, Marinette explained that was one of the reasons there were so many cat cafés now – it was a safe way to deal with stress that hopefully wouldn’t attract Hawkmoth’s attention.

After lunch, Tim realized he’d left one of his textbooks in his locker. He left Marinette at their shared desk so he could go retrieve it. The locker room was surprisingly quiet – it was close enough to the end of the lunch break that Tim would have thought there’d be more people collecting books and other things needed for afternoon classes. Instinctively, he softened his footsteps and kept to the shadows – something wasn’t right.

He heard voices coming from further into the room. Keeping to the shadows, he headed towards them. When he was on the other side of the lockers from the voices, he used a compact mirror to see what was happening on the other side. He frowned internally. Lila Rossi, the girl who had gone to Gotham and tried to claim she was close with the Batfam, was speaking to another girl – a short blonde with a pixie cut wearing pink. She was sobbing, obviously devastated.

“I really don’t mean to upset you,” Lila was saying, patting the blonde girl on the shoulder, “but I thought you should know what he was saying.”

“I just don’t get it!” The blonde said through her tears. “He’s always said that I was basically another sister. He treats me just the same as Juleka…” she trailed off into sobs. After a few minutes, she gathered herself enough to ask, “Juleka really didn’t say anything?”

Lila shook her head. “Not a word, Rose. I’m so sorry, but I really thought you should know what I heard.”

Rose just sobbed harder. Suddenly she stiffened and after a moment said in a monotone voice, “Yes Hawkmoth.” She transformed, skin and hair turning green and her clothing transforming into a dress made of rose petals. In her left hand, she carried a spray bottle that Tim was certain contained something far more dangerous than water. She pushed Lila up against the lockers and then took off through the room – luckily away from Tim.

Tim couldn’t see where Rose was going, but he saw Lila’s face. She was smirking, looking very triumphant. That was… surprising. And concerning.

He slipped away back the way he had come. Once he was back in the hallway, he opened the Akuma alert app and reported the Akumatization. Hopefully Rose hadn’t gone far.

Since he had promised Red Robin wouldn’t show up during attacks, there was only one thing for Tim to do right now.

He was going to investigate Lila Rossi. Something about her was awfully fishy.

**Barbra Gordon**

Most people thought Babs knew everything. They were wrong. At the end of the day, for all her technological prowess, databases, and connections, she was still only human. And humans don’t know everything. But the assumption that Babs was all knowing had one very useful side effect.

When Babs spoke, people listened.

Unlike when Batman gave an order, if Oracle said something (no matter what that something was) it was done – and usually without many questions being asked. She had a reputation for good intel that other heroes trusted. Everyone knew that if the Oracle said it, it was true.

And the main reason Babs hated being left in the dark was that it hurt her professional reputation as the Oracle if she had to admit she didn’t know something.

So, when Tim video called her at 4pm Gotham time (10pm Paris time) asking for a favor… well. There’s a price for everything.

“I want to know the real reason you went to Paris and why you bought the warehouse – the full story. All of it.”

And then Tim hesitated. He was silent for several moments. Babs could see the indecision warring on his face. She was silent in return. It was the middle of the afternoon and nothing important was happening. She could wait him out.

“If I tell you,” said Tim slowly, “I need your guarantee that no one will come to Paris. Not the Batfam, not the Outlaws, not the Teen Titans, not the Titans, not the Justice League. _Everyone_ stays out of Paris until further notice.”

“That’s a tall order,” said Babs.

“It’s one of the only ways to keep the world safe,” said Tim firmly.

Some people forgot, but Babs hadn’t always been the Oracle. She had been Batgirl first – and the bats were well-known as both detectives and profilers. She might not have as much need of the latter skillset as she used to, but her skills were still sharp. She knew Tim wouldn’t make a statement like that for no reason. She could see in his face that he completely believed what he was saying. Babs may not understand why he believed that, but it really came down to one thing.

She trusted Tim.

“Alright, I’ll do my best. Now spill the tea.”

Tim relaxed and started explaining. He started with the visiting French class (which, how did they even get the school board to approve going to Gotham?) and the comment made by Alya Césaire which led him to the Ladyblog, and eventually to Paris.

“The two heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir, they’ve done really well,” continued Tim, “but they’re under trained and slightly out of their depths. They realized quickly that if someone from the JL turned up and was Akumatized, they would lose. Having now seen them in action, I can confirm they were correct in thinking that. And having heard what the effects of a wish with the combined Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous would be… they were right to make it their highest priority to keep the Paris situation under wraps.”

“What would the effects be?” asked Babs.

“Previous wishes have resulted in global catastrophes such as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius or the Black Plague. There seems to be a direct correlation between the magnitude of the wish and the magnitude of the effects – the bigger the wish, the larger the effect. But since we don’t know what Hawkmoth wants-“

“You have no way of knowing how large the effects would be,” Babs finished for him.

“Exactly.”

Pieces were filling themselves in for Babs. The pair who had set off his adoption senses were obviously the two heroes. The warehouse _was_ going to be used for training like Tim had told Bruce, it just wasn’t going to be used for _his_ training. Tim wasn’t going into any further details because he knew the Batfam wouldn’t be able to keep themselves from going to Paris to help, regardless of the delicate situation that Paris currently was and despite the agreement Red Robin had come to with Ladybug and Chat Noir.

“Alright,” Babs said once Tim had finished his explanation, “you’ve held up your end of the bargain. I’ll keep mine - there will be no supers in Paris until I hear otherwise. Now what’s the favor?”

“There’s a girl at school – Lila Rossi. She was part of the class that came to Gotham. I caught her in the locker room at school with a curious expression after the other girl she was speaking with was Akumatized. Something rubbed me wrong about the whole experience. I don’t have the set up here that I would need in order to do a full background check on her-“

“So, you want me to do one,” Babs nodded. “I can do that. I’ll try to have it for you ASAP.”

“Thanks Babs. I’m going to try to figure out if she’s been present for many other Akumatizations. It’s just a hunch, but… well, my hunches usually turn into something.”

Babs nodded, already thinking about the databases she would need to access for information on Lila Rossi. “You have a knack for it. Get some sleep – don’t spend all night obsessing over this.”

Tim snorted. “I’ll try but you know me – sometimes I don’t realize how long it’s been until my alarm goes off again. Night Babs.”

“Night Tim.” She turned off the call.

Before she started in on Lila Rossi’s Oracle-level background check, she had one more thing to do. She pulled out her phone.

**Today** 4:47 PM  
Tim filled me in on the Paris situation. I want all of you to swear to me that you will all stay OUT of Paris until Tim or I tell you otherwise. This includes sending other supers in your stead – no one from the Outlaws, Teen Titans, Titans, Justice League, or anyone else you might have contact with is to go to Paris. At all.  
If you try, I will do absolutely everything in my power to keep you here – up to and including putting you on every “do not travel” list in the country. I will override the Batplane. I am absolutely, completely, utterly serious when I say NO ONE goes to Paris.  
And if you try to send one of the Flashes or flyers, I will release EVERY SINGLE ONE of their villains and give them the tools they need to start wrecking utter havoc on their city. NO ONE GOES TO PARIS.  
Dick  
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so serious Babs. I’ll stay out.  
Bruce  
What’s happening in Paris?  
Stay out of it Bruce. Tim and I are handling it. No one else needs to get involved at this point.  
Jason  
If it means that much to you Barbie, I guess I can behave myself this once.  
Cass  
Trust Babs and Tim. I’ll wait.  
Steph  
What Cass said.  
Damian  
What has the Pretender screwed up this time? I’m not cleaning his mess up.  
Thanks everyone.  
Bruce. Swear to me.  
Bruce.  
Bruce  
You and Tim will be explaining everything as soon as possible.  
Of course. Hopefully things will be wrapped up soon, but we’ll see.  


Babs tucked her phone away. She would still need to monitor Bruce and Damian, just in case. But at least they probably wouldn’t do anything rash. Probably.

She turned to her Oracle computer and monitors. She started with a basic background check, one that any police department might run if they had cause. Immediately, flags started popping up and Babs frowned. This might be harder than she thought.

Aside from her school records for Francoise Dupont and the standard social media accounts, Lila Rossi didn’t exist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're curious, what Lila "overheard" was Luka telling Juleka that he couldn't stand Rose, or something to that effect.


	5. Adelina Pavia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took forever to write this chapter, and get the ending to a point where I was happy. So, sorry for the delay.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who has commented, subscribed, bookmarked, or left Kudos!

**Marinette Dupain-Cheng**

It was a normal spring morning until Red Robin sent Ladybug and Chat Noir a text.

**Today** 7:28 AM  
Red Robin  
Any way you guys can meet up tonight? I've got a lead to find out Hawkmoth's identity I'd like to go over with you.

Marinette took a deep breath before replying.

**Today** 7:28 AM  
Red Robin  
Any way you guys can meet up tonight? I've got a lead to find out Hawkmoth's identity I'd like to go over with you.  
I can meet anytime after 7:30pm, Hopefully the lead pans out!  
Chat Noir  
I'm busy until 8pm. Does 8:30 at the warehouse work for everyone?  
Red Robin  
That works for me. We'll be video calling with a member of my team from Gotham. She helped me do some of the digging for this info.  
Can't wait to meet her. See you all at 8:30!  
  
**Read** 7:32 AM

Marinette glanced at the clock. It was only 7h30. Great. That meant she only had, like, 13 hours to freak out about this.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Later, Ladybug and Chat Noir slipped through an open upper window of the warehouse, locking it behind them. It wouldn’t do to be overheard, after all. Especially not tonight.

The warehouse was a large empty space that Red Robin had filled with mats and training dummies. One of the larger offices near the back had been converted to a sort of lounge with a large TV on the wall. It was here the three heroes met, with a red-headed woman in a plain black domino mask checking in from the TV (which was connected to Red Robin’s laptop).

“Ladybug, Chat Noir,” said Red Robin, “this is Oracle. She’s brilliant and has done most of the leg work for this lead.”

Oracle smiled. “Don’t sell yourself short, Red. You’ve managed to get some info that I couldn’t. It’s nice to meet you, Ladybug, Chat Noir,” she finished, nodding briskly at the pair. “Let’s get to it. There’s a lot of information to go over.”

Red Robin started. “During my profile of former Akuma, I noticed that Lila Rossi tends to both be Akumatized frequently or is frequently present at Akumatizations. That struck me as both odd and suspicious, so I dug into it a bit further. I discovered that Lila Rossi can be directly traced to 81% of Akumatizations, including her own, and indirectly linked to a further 7%. I found that extremely suspicious. Further, she was part of the class that came to Gotham. That visit was what tipped me off to what’s happening in Paris in the first place. Additionally, no international class should have been able to get approval to travel to _Gotham City_. It is the first choice of travel destinations of _no one_ unless they have something to hide.

“All of these factors combined persuaded me that the next step was a Bat-level background check on Lila Rossi. However, I don’t have the computer set-up to do so here. So, I asked the all-knowing Oracle to do it for me.”

Oracle took over the explanation now. “I figured it would be pretty simple. A teenage girl typically doesn’t have much to hide, after all. However, I ran into a major snag pretty much immediately during my first pass – which was a regular background check any member of law enforcement might do. Past her school records, the usual social media accounts, and the mentions of her on the Ladyblog, Lila Rossi doesn’t exist.”

Ladybug blanked. How could Lila Rossi not exist? She sat in the classroom, lying and manipulating people into doing her bidding.

Chat was a bit quicker on the uptake. “If she’s not Lila Rossi, then who is she really?”

Oracle smiled. “I’m glad you asked. Her real name is Adelina Pavia. She is from Italy, that much is true, but her mother is not an Italian diplomat. Her parents were agents with Interpol and were working on taking down a group known as The Maze – a Europe-based criminal organization involved in pretty much everything from smuggling to trafficking. Her parents were infiltrating The Maze when their identities were compromised, and her dad was killed during the escape. Her mom, Ileana Pavia, survived but due to her injuries was placed in a medically induced coma. Adelina was placed in witness protection and taken in by a couple who had connections to The Maze. They sold Adelina to the group. They have since been caught; however, Adelina is still presumed missing. She was seven at the time.

“The next few years are a bit iffy – I wasn’t able to find a lot of the records digitally and they likely only exist in paper format – or have since been destroyed. From what I can tell, The Maze took Adelina to a remote base where she was trained with other children to work for The Maze. Some of these children were the children of The Maze’s agents, some were illegally acquired children, like Adelina. Based on records coming from similar locations, the training process would have been horrific – but I’ll spare you the details on that.

“Things become a little bit clearer once Adelina arrives in Paris for the first time under the name Lila Rossi. Adelina was sent to Paris with a handler as a training exercise and test. As best as I can determine, it was at this point that Adelina’s meta abilities were discovered. The note from her file with The Maze indicates that her meta abilities seem to have to do with lying and manipulation. Adelina was returned to the base for some additional testing and training and then sent back to Paris with her handler to train and field test these abilities. As best as I can tell, there were no documents created for Lila Rossi because the trip was originally supposed to be quite short and it was missed when her time in Paris was extended.”

Red Robin took over again. “That was as far as we could get with records and a bit of guesswork. I’ve since profiled Adelina Pavia and it’s my determination that she remembers what life was like before The Maze and she desperately wants to get back to that. I believe that she is working with Hawkmoth willingly and using her meta abilities to cause Akumatizations because he has promised that he would help her escape The Maze. However, I’m not sure why she would choose to help a supervillain instead of going to the local heroes for help. In my experience, most people choose to ask heroes for help and have to be pretty desperate or have a very good reason for asking a villain instead.”

Ladybug winced. “That’s probably my fault. The first time I encountered her, I found her lying to a civilian about being a Miraculous user and my best friend. I… told her off. I… was pretty mean about it, actually. I definitely could have handled that whole situation way better. But it was right in front of a cute guy that I think she was looking to impress, and I embarrassed her in front of him. She was probably 14 or so at the time – that kind of thing stings a lot at that age.”

Oracle nodded. “Yeah, that would probably do it. Based on what I can find out about the training The Maze put her through, the embarrassment and humiliation she felt would have completely soured her towards you guys. I can’t imagine Adelina willingly seeking out someone who made her feel that way for help.”

Red Robin agreed, “I can’t either.”

Ladybug groaned. “So, this mess is my fault then. Great.”

Red Robin patted her shoulder. “Don’t feel too badly – you were still a new hero at the time and were young yourself. Besides, if I’m right about her connection to Hawkmoth-“

“That gives us a way to find his identity,” finished Chat, lighting up. “That would be awesome! And we can make sure that Li-um-Adelina is safe from The Maze once we defeat Hawkmoth.”

Ladybug did feel a bit better. “Yeah, you’re right.”

* * *

Later, Marinette consulted with Adrien and the Kwami. “We’re getting closer to discovering his identity,” she began, “so we need to think about our confrontation with him. I think it’s most likely going to happen after an Akuma fight, or during one of his Scarlet Moth appearances.”

Adrien nodded with a frown. “Even if we seek him out after an easy Akuma, he’s an adult and has Mayura on his side. Plus, I could see him Akumatizing Lila or someone else to give him a last-minute advantage – and that’s without factoring any security or whatever he’s got on his home or hideout. I think we’re going to need backup.”

Marinette agreed. “But the only people I see being possibilities are Red Robin or Tim-”

“And they suit the same Miraculous,” finished Adrien with a sigh.

“Exactly.”

“I think we give the Miraculous to Red Robin,” said Adrien. “He’s already familiar with the situation and has training. But is just one person enough? We have no idea what we’re going to be walking into and you know the Miraculous work better the greater it suits you and the longer you’ve used it and become attuned to it.”

Wayzz cleared his throat. Marinette and Adrien looked up, having forgotten that the Kwami were there. “I believe you are right. You have both come a long way from where you were, but it would be wiser to be overprepared then underprepared for this fight. I do not believe we will have a second opportunity if we lose whatever fight we end up having with Hawkmoth and Mayura – even if you both manage to escape with the Miracle Box. With that in mind, the other Kwami and I are in agreement – you should meet with the other members of the Batfamily and se if any of them are compatible with a Miraculous. If they are, you should leave the Miraculous with them to allow them to become used to the Miraculous. They are already trained and likely already have some knowledge of the situation due to Red Robin and Oracle.”

Marinette and Adrien looked at Wayzz and then looked at each other, considering his suggestion. It… was pretty much ideal. With Kalki’s help, they could easily meet with the Batfamily for training sessions that would help them become closer as a team. And, with the Batfamily (mostly) not in Paris, the danger of Hawkmoth realizing there were additional Miraculous wielders was minimal. There were only a couple of dangers…

“What if the Miraculous we lend them gets lost or stolen? Or they misuse it?” asked Marinette.

“Marinette,” Tikki said, flying down so she was right in front of Marinette’s face, “you and Adrien need help. You know this. You know that you will only have one shot to recover the Peacock and Butterfly Miraculous. You know that this is the best solution. You trust Red Robin. You will have to trust a little bit further that if you give his teammates the Miraculous, it will not backfire on you. But if it does, you and Adrien are capable of dealing with it.”

Marinette… didn’t quite know what to think. She looked at Tikki, who was staring seriously at her. She took a deep breath and nodded on the exhale. “All right. I’m in. Let’s do this.”

She looked at Adrien, who smiled at her. “I’m in too. I’ll text Red Robin.”

He pulled out the burner phone Red Robin had purchased for him (Marinette had one as well). Red Robin had said it was kind of stupid to only be able to get in contact with each other when they were transformed, so he’d supplied them with burner phones.

**Today** 10:42 PM  
Red Robin? Ladybug and I need to meet with all of your Gotham City team as soon as possible. And we’re going to need co-ordinates for a place near Gotham City where we can meet them.  
Red Robin  
Why? And you’re planning to meet them in person?  
Yes. We have a way of teleporting to co-ordinates. You’ll need to be there as well. Oracle too. We’ll explain at the meeting, but it’s important. This weekend would be best, if possible.  
Red Robin  
I’ll coordinate with Oracle.  
  
**Read** 7:32 AM

**Author's Note:**

> Side note that is important but not relevant to the chapter - the story takes place in March. The class travels to Gotham City the last week of Februrary and Red Robin's conversation with Ladybug and Chat Noir takes place the first week of March. Tim will be starting school the second week. Also, Tim is 18, so he doesn't need Bruce's permission to transfer to Paris for a semester, but he has been working as CEO of Wayne Enterprises. Bruce and Tim have been arguing about school - Bruce wants Tim to go back to school for his last semester and Tim wants to just get his GED. Marinette and Adrien are vaguely 17-18.
> 
> Also, if anyone knows how to do the fake Twitter posts and could send me a tutorial, that would be amazing. I have a feeling there are going to be some Twitter shenanigans in this.


End file.
